Netflix is the only brand that claims at least an hour of time per day from its active users, but its time spent will decline by 1 minute this year, Insider Intelligence said in its latest report. Now, the researcher expects Netflix’s new ad-supported subscribers to watch the service somewhat less than the cohort paying full price. The same story will play out with Disney+, as time spent is expected to decline by 1% this year thanks to its less-engaged ad-supported viewers.
Meanwhile, Insider Intelligence noted that estimates for Hulu and the other sub OTT services were not affected by the writers’ strike. The ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America negatively affected Insider Intelligence’s time spent with TV forecast, but the company do not expect consequences for streaming services unless the strike drags on for many more months. This is good news for Hulu, the sub OTT platform most deeply engaged with marketers and advertising. Time spent with Hulu will increase by 1 minute this year.
At the same time, TikTok and YouTube are in a close fight for short- and medium-length video viewing time. TikTok’s users (0:54) will remain more engaged than YouTube’s (0:49), although YouTube’s user base will remain far larger. Among the population as a whole, YouTube will claim 34 minutes per person per day, while TikTok will take just 17 minutes. Both platforms will increase their time spent metrics by 2 to 3 minutes this year, a feat that only Instagram will match among the closest competitors. Most other services will be relatively stagnant.
“The most popular individual media service in the United States, Netflix, has a limited ad inventory, and several other major time-takers, like Spotify, Disney+, and Prime Video, are also semi-closed systems,” commented Ethan Cramer-Flood, Senior Forecasting Writer at Insider Intelligence and the author of the report.
“Digital marketers understandably train most of their attention on social media, Hulu, and YouTube, but there is an intriguing disconnect between the attention Meta’s properties receive and the reality of user time spent. Instagram and Facebook are only in the middle of the pack, but they will collectively claim 75% of social ad spending and nearly 20% of all digital advertising this year. This skew might be reasonable, but it might also suggest a reassessment is in order,” Ethan Cramer-Flood concluded.
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